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will be broadcast over each field site at a rate equivalent to the amount of nitrogen that would be applied over a residential septic tank drain field over the period of one month. We will rely on natural precipitation to drive nitrogen transport through the soiUepikarst system. Using the biogeochemical collection scheme already in place, we will observe the dynamics of nitrogen concentrations in cave drip water. Comparisons between sites will allow us to assess the impact of soil and epikarst thickness and structure on the velocity and amount of nitrogen transported through the soiUepikarst system. Time -table and expected results Spring and Summer 2008: Detailed site characterizations, site selections, instrumentation. Fall 2008: Begin data collection, create detailed maps of surface and subsurface. 2009: Continue data collection. Summer 2009: contaminant experiment. Fall 2009: Analyze data, present, write, and publish results. The experiment will allow us to answer our three research questions. We will synthesize results and create a detailed conceptual model of flow, storage, and biogeochemical processes in the soil /epikarst system, which will be valuable to land managers and city planners concerned with protecting central Texas' water resources. C) Research Personnel Research personnel consists of PI Schwartz, Co -PI Schwinning (both assistant professors at TSU), and three TSU graduate and two undergraduate students to be recruited for the project. Schwartz is an expert in karst hydrogeology and Schwinning in plant water relations. Both have previous experience in the proposed methodologies. After the instrumentation phase and an initial training period, graduate students will take the lead on collecting, analyzing and reporting the data, with one student responsible for each of the three components: drip -water studies, hydrogeophysical studies (application of the ERT), and ecophysiological studies. Undergraduates will support graduate students in collecting field data, laboratory analysis of samples and data processing. Because all components of this study are highly integrated, we envision that graduate and undergraduate students together with the PIs will form a highly interactive interdisciplinary team with weekly planning and progress meetings that will foster learning for all participants. D) Student involvement and research and education opportunities in science and engineering Students will be trained in the application and interpretation of several advanced field methods, all imminently relevant to future land managers in Texas. We expect that each student will become an expert in a subset of these, but through close collaboration, will acquire a good understanding of all methods employed in this study. To expose a larger number of students to the goals and methods of this research project, we will take undergraduate and graduate students on organized field trips to the research sites: an estimated 200 to 250 students per year, most of them undergraduate students enrolled in General Ecology, taught by Schwinning, and Hydrogeology, taught by Schwartz. Graduate students enrolled in Karst Hydrogeology (Schwartz) and Plant Water Relations (Schwinning) will be encouraged to develop synergistic semester -long projects at one or more of the six study sites. E) Institutional commitment and sources of additional support TSS has committed to provide, free of charge, all available information related to the selected caves. All other facilities and instrumentation required for the work, but not budgeted, are available through start-up funds to Schwartz and Schwinning. The Biology department has committed to provide funding to all graduate students involved in this study through teaching assistantships (see Department Head letter).